Designing kitty

Princesse des Fleurs  © 2013 Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

6 x 6 inches • oil on museum-quality, archival GessobordTM

gloss varnish for UV protection

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Here’s Jo, pretending she’s queen of the woodlands. Unfortunately, her flower crown is just a smidge too large for her. That’s okay with her though; she’d just as soon sit inside it as wear it any day.

I painted this one from a photo I took right after she came to join our family, when she was still a kitten and cute as a little multi-colored button.

Now she’s very grown-up, a tall and graceful “teenager.”

She’s also getting very bossy.

While I was in the planning stage for this painting, she took it upon herself to supervise the cropping.

I’m sure she’ll be wanting to apply for admission to design school next fall.

Ray, cat of ... well ... approximately two expressions

Yep. He’s got this one ...

Lavender Sweater  © 2013 Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

6 x 6 inches • oil on museum-quality, archival GessobordTM

gloss varnish for UV protection

$125

  

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and he’s got this one ...

Sweet dreams, all!

Flowers, flowers, flowers

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

– CLAUDE MONET

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Springtime Medley  © 2013 by Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

6 x 6 inches • oil on archival, museum-quality, GessobordTM

private collection • Salem, Oregon

I’ve been plugging away at my new website design; I’m excited about the way it’s coming together. I’m getting really close to being ready to take it out for a test drive, but today I took a break from computer work to start work on a new commission, and to indulge my spring fever with a couple of flower paintings. Enjoy!

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Single White Poppy  © 2013 by Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

6 x 6 inches • oil on archival, museum-quality, GessobordTM

private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana

A dog, four guppies and a mean-spirited goose

Wow, I didn’t mean to be away so long ... I guess time flies when the weather is beautiful and spring projects beckon me away from the computer!

I have tons of photos yet to download from my camera, some of which show how my Dad has restored our 140-year-old front door (I’ll try to have those ready for tomorrow), but for now I just have to share this conversation I had today with five-year-old Nora, whom I was spending some time with while her mom was attending a Bible study.

Nora lives out in the country with her Mom and Dad and three-year-old little brother, who, the last time I talked with him back when he was two-and-a-half, said he didn’t want the rest of the sausage stick from his packed lunch because it was “too feisty.” (I tasted it, and sure enough, it was a little feisty.)

Anyway, today Nora and I were sitting together on the floor, drawing with crayons. I drew a picture of our dog, Matilda, and she drew a picture of her dog, Isi (pronounced “I see”). Then we started drawing various flowers to make a garden.

Me:  Are you the one who feeds Isi?

Nora:  Yep. That’s my job. Wyatt’s job is to take out the trash. The LITTLE trash. My dad takes out the BIG trash.

(She pauses to study her flowers, chooses another crayon and continues her coloring.)

Nora:  I love drawing.

Me:  Me, too. Do you have any other pets?

Nora:  Yes, four guppies. They’re in my room. It’s my job to feed them, too.

Me:  What else?

Nora:  Ummm ... we have some geese.

Me:  Geese! How many?

Nora:  Four.

Me:  Cool.

Nora:  Yeah.

(a few seconds of silence while we color our flowers)

Nora:  One of them bit me.

Me:  One of the geese?

Nora:  Yep.

Me:  Where?

Nora:  On my thumb.

(She holds up her thumb and we both inspect it closely. It looks perfectly fine.)

Me:  Hm.

Nora (going back to coloring):  God healed it.

Me:  Oh. (going back to my coloring) It’s pretty amazing how He loves us.

Nora:  Yep.

(A long silence as we each concentrate on our artistic endeavors.)

Nora:  (without looking up from her coloring) Now it’s Mom’s job to feed the geese.

Me:  (secretly congratulating myself on keeping a straight face) Mmm-hm.

Comfy Cozy Ray Painting finished!

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A Rainy Morning  © 2013 by Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

12 x 12 x 1 inches • oil on cradled GessobordTM

private collection • Leonding, Austria

Thank you for all your title suggestions ... they were all great! As I was looking at the finished painting last night I wanted to go with something that would emphasize the feeling of comfy coziness, and what better way to evoke that feeling than to know that while Ray is indulging in a morning snooze in his favorite chair, the rain is pattering on the roof and streaming down the window panes.

One note: I had initially intended for the back of the chair to be a creamy white with the little embroidered flowers, but then I thought that might make the overall look too light, and take away from the feeling of coziness, so I decided instead to emphasize that luscious red underpainting, and I ended up loving it. Now I wish I actually had a luxuriously red chair here in my studio! For now I’ll have to be content  with tossing a red quilt over the back.  :)

One in five million

Why do cats sleep so much? Perhaps they’ve been entrusted with some major cosmic task, an essential law of physics – such as: if there are less than five million cats sleeping at any one time the world will stop spinning. So that when you look at them and think, “what a lazy, good-for-nothing animal,” they are, in fact, working very, very hard.

QUOTE FROM KATE ATKINSON

As Yet Untitled WORK-IN-PROGRESS • 12 x 12 inches • oil on cradled Gessobord

I’m trying to come up with a title for this work-in-progress of Ray ... any suggestions?

A new Louisiana landscape painting

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Misty Morning  © 2013 by Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

16 x 20 inches • oil on 3/4" cradled GessobordTM

private collection • Richardson, Texas

This bayou is just down the road from us, about half a mile away. I love the way the morning fog makes the distant trees look all soft and hazy.

With this one I was going for a balance between simplifying the shapes and keeping the feeling of wildness. I’ve been studying Susan Sarback’s beautiful paintings and her use of color ... I would love to take one of her workshops. She teaches not too far from where my husband’s parents live in northern California, so maybe one day I’ll get the chance!

Happy painting!